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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26132371">Apollo and Icarus</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/richardisroger91/pseuds/richardisroger91'>richardisroger91</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Gods &amp; Men [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore, Percy Jackson and the Olympians &amp; Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:40:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,371</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26132371</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/richardisroger91/pseuds/richardisroger91</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Apollo loves Icarus.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Apollo &amp; Icarus (Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore), Apollo/Icarus (Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Gods &amp; Men [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897594</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Apollo and Icarus</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Apollo is handsome and golden. He visits Icarus in the hottest days of the summer while Daedalus toils away for Minos. He covers Icarus with kisses, each one burning, covers him until Icarus’s skin is as bronze as the sacrificial bowls in the temples. Icarus’s hair turns palest blonde, almost white, after endless days in the presence of the sun god. Apollo tells him beautiful things, makes him promises of palaces, and servants, silver, gold, and endless youth if only Icarus will promise to be Apollo’s forever. But he can not leave his father. They have been through too much together, and he loves him, and leaving him alone in Mino’s prison would shatter Daedalus’s heart. He assures Apollo that one day he and his father will be free, and then he can dedicate his heart and soul to Apollo. Apollo only smiles and reminds him that the days of man are short, and they cannot know what the morrow brings. <br/>	“Do not fly too high,” Daedalus tells Icarus. “Or the sun will melt the wax. Your wings will crumple apart if that happens.” <br/>	Daedalus has fashioned winged harnesses for the both of them. They will use them to escape the tower in which Minos has imprisoned them. Icarus promises his father that he will not. He tells Apollo of their escape plan when he comes to visit again. Apollo promises to worship him if only Icarus will be his once he’s free. It captivates Icarus for who can refuse the love of a god that promises to worship a mortal, especially an inventor’s son? <br/>	The sun is high when they finally escape, jumping from the tower’s only window. It is exhilarating: the rush of wind catching their wings and lifting them up. The waves of the ocean toss beneath them; the seagulls caw in confusion at the intruders into their domain. Icarus delights in the freedom and laughs. The laughter trails behind him like a cape as he soars and dips. His father calls out a caution, and Icarus heeds him,  But then he sees him: Apollo sitting on a golden throne amidst the fire of the sun. Apollo smiles in delight at seeing his lover so high and close to his domain. He calls out to Icarus, reminding him of his love for the boy and of his promises. Icarus flies higher, higher, and he stretches out his hands to meet Apollo’sm but then he’s falling. The feathers of his wings breaking free around him as the sun’s heat melts the wax’s bindings, and his father is screaming his name in panic and fear, and Apollo is too, but all Icarus can do is feel himself falling and  see the god’s tormented face burning into his eyes. He can’t even tell his father he’s sorry  The boy meets the ocean like falling bricks, and he knows no more. </p>
<p>	“My nephew is quite cross with me.” says the man standing over Icarus. <br/>He’s laying on the shore of a great river, dark and silver, and the beach is strange with black sands and swirls of golden dust. The sky overhead is covered in black clouds like those of a storm. The light that dimly makes it way through them gives the whole place the feeling of twilight. The pale skinned man continues to speak, stretching out an arm to help Icarus stand. <br/>“He came down here demanding you back. It’s the first time since the beginning of creation that the sun has ever been seen in the land of the dead. The true sun of the living realm anyway. I don’t count the one that shines in Elysium. Iapetus fashioned it for himself when he ruled over this place, and it’s a pretty good imitation.”<br/>“I’m dead then?” Icarus asked, trying to latch on to all the information he’d just been handed.  He’d thought he’d feel different being dead, but the only difference he could determine was that a weight seemed to have been lifted off his back. <br/>	“That’s the burden of death that every man carries,” said the man, sensing his thought. “You don’t have it anymore, what with actually being dead and all. Mortals tell me it’s actually quite freeing. Wouldn’t know myself; immortals don’t carry it.” <br/>“You said Apollo came for me?” Icarus asks. He is touched. One of the Dodekatheon came to death itself for him. Who was he to be worthy of such honor? He was merely Daedalus’s son, not as talented as his father or as skilled. Just a simple man.<br/>“Yes,” the man said. Icarus stared at his bone white skin and midnight hair. This must be Hades, the king of this land. <br/>“He came with bluster and fierce words, burning bright. Apollo tried to bribe me, but what could he offer? All the treasures beneath the earth are mine, and all the men who walk upon it are promised to enrich my kingdom at their birth. He then tried to threaten me. I am a god much older and wildly more powerful than he. During the Great War, I was the one who slit the throat of Iapetus and destroyed his physical form. Me who imprisoned his essence in an inescapable vessel, forged by the Fates themselves. It was I who lowered the sarcophagi of all the defeated Titans into the River of Fire in Tartarus. When all other things reach their end, it is I who will remain.When all of the physical world is gone and forgotten, only the realm of the dead will remain.  I will usher Apollo to his new palace in Elysium when the sun ceases to exist and all falls back into nothingness hundreds of thousands upon millions of eons from now. I merely had to remind him of that fact for his violent words to cease.”<br/>“He loves me,”Icarus simply said in response. <br/>“I could tell. He has petitioned Zeus for your release.”<br/>“Will he succeed?”<br/>“A verdict has already been issued.”<br/>Icarus’s heart skipped a beat at the words. <br/>“What does the King of the Gods decree?” He shivers, though with fear or anticipation he can not tell. <br/>“Zeus says that you must be returned to Apollo,” Hades tells the young man. A smile blossoms across Icarus’s face, and his heart swells as though to burst through his chest. Hades places a hand on his shoulder to restrain him. <br/>“But Zeus, and the Fates also,  declares that mortal man cannot be allowed to return to life. To do so what upset the natural balance, not to mention give men all kinds of wild ideas of cheating death and being gods. In this matter I am of one mind with my younger brother.” <br/>Icarus asked, “Then what is to become of me?” <br/>Hades smiles slyly, <br/>“Mortal man cannot be restored to life.  Flying brought you to my kingdom, and flying shall take you back to the god you love. I give you this promise, Icarus, son of Daedalus, loved by Apollo: Death and old age will never touch you again.You will be Apollo’s constant companion for as long as creation exists. I shall see you only when I escort Apollo to that aforementioned palace. Now fly, young one. Fly back to the sun god.”<br/>Icarus found himself shrinking, his bones twisting and turning. HIs skin itched as something sprouted from it. Hades crouched and cupped him in the palms of his hands. Icarus found himself being flung into the air, and, then, he was back in the world of the living. The sky was blue above him, the sea sparkled beneath him, and Apollo’s chariot pulled the sun across its course. Icarus flew to him, and yelled his declarations of love but only a strange squawking escaped his mouth. Nonetheless, Apollo turned to look. With wonder, Apollo stared at him as he lighted on the edges of the chariot. <br/>“A crow, Icarus,” Apollo marveled. “Hades has transformed you into a pure white crow.”<br/>He lifted Icarus up to his face and smothered Icarus’s beak with kisses. <br/>“Come, my love.” Apollo says, “Let us take the day’s adventures.” He lifts Icarus to his shoulder, and there Icarus finds himself content and happy for eternity.</p>
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